Predator-Prey Study: Wolves not threat to deer you may think

In the snowy woods of the western Upper Peninsula, wildlife
researchers are learning a thing or two about deer survival: what preys
on adult whitetails and fawns — and what else contributes to their
deaths.

Some in the hunting community presume the answer is wolves. Many know
harsh winters take a toll. Both are true, according to recent research,
but a lot depends on other factors, such as the availability of young
forests and food, predator density, and what other prey are available.
The study, started in 2009 by Mississippi State University and the
Michigan Department of Natural Resources, has turned up some surprises. "We've been surprised by a few things in Phase I (low-snow study),"
notes Dean Beyer, a researcher with the DNR. "We learned that adult does
were avoiding core wolf areas and that coyotes were avoiding them, too.
That put coyotes and does in the same area, which probably resulted in a
greater mortality by coyotes. And we were all surprised by the rate at
which bobcats killed fawns. The rate is much higher than other species."

The study, known as The Predator Prey Project,
is a three-phase endeavor that examines ecological interactions in
low-snow, moderate-snow and deep-snow regions of the western U.P. The
answers are being derived by tracking deer fitted with radio-telemetry
collars and predators fitted with GPS collars. The low-snow work wrapped
up in 2011. The moderate snow work is slated to finish this year. Then
three years of deep-snow work will begin, provided funding can be found.

Two Phase I findings are particularly interesting. "Predation was the
leading cause of mortality, 3.5 times more hazardous than human-caused
mortality sources," the preliminary report states, along with "Overall,
coyotes were the leading cause of adult female mortality, followed by
wolves."
Predation by black bears was infrequent and considered
"opportunistic," and wolves were not considered important predators for
fawns.

Beyer suggests the proximity of coyotes and deer boosted those
mortality numbers. Wolves in the low-snow zone were often feeding at
livestock carcass dumps. "Coyotes in Phase I were the biggest and most important predator of
fawns and adult does," Beyer said. "In Phase II (the moderate snow zone)
coyotes cause the most total mortality of fawns, but when we look at
adult deer, wolves jump up to No. 1; I think because they don't have the
livestock carcass dumps."

The winter season also has an impact, according to the report: "Adult
female mortality was greatest during winter (44 percent of those
deaths), followed by spring/summer (37 percent), and fall (19 percent)."

Winter severity, which can hinder a deer's ability to move around and
feed, in turn can affect fawn size at birth. A 2.-pound reduction in a
newborn fawn's weight can increase mortality by 11 percent, the research
shows. "Phase II has been interesting because we have had some very severe
winter conditions," Beyer said. "A couple of things jumped out. In 2013,
(adult) doe survival was 58 percent, which is on the low end of things.
In 2014, when we had even more severe weather, doe survival was 38
percent — some of the lowest survival rates I've seen in the literature.
Those conditions stressed the does, and the fawns were born in poor
condition. "We pretty much lost the fawn crop in 2013 and had fairly low fawn survival in 2014, when 11 percent of the fawns survived."

For those who remain certain that Michigan wolves will decimate the
deer herd, Beyer suggests it is unlikely. The two species, he says, have
evolved together, and other factors influence outcomes. Habitat and
predator densities are just two. Then there are predator's energy needs.
Coyotes, for instance, are more likely to kill fawns while wolves are
more likely to kill adult does. They need more meat/fuel to sustain
themselves. "What we know from the scientific literature is there are only two
reports where wolves are believed to have contributed to a substantial
reduction of deer ... winter weather is still the driving factor, even
in the low-snow zone," Beyer said.

The film offers an abbreviated history of the relationship between wolves and people—told from the wolf’s perspective—from a time when they coexisted to an era in which people began to fear and exterminate the wolves.

The return of wolves to the northern Rocky Mountains has been called one of America’s greatest conservation stories. But wolves are facing new attacks by members of Congress who are gunning to remove Endangered Species Act protections before the species has recovered.

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Inescapably, the realization was being borne in upon my preconditioned mind that the centuries-old and universally accepted human concept of wolf character was a palpable lie... From this hour onward, I would go open-minded into the lupine world and learn to see and know the wolves, not for what they were supposed to be, but for what they actually were.

-Farley Mowat, Never Cry Wolf

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“If you look into the eyes of a wild wolf, there is something there more powerful than many humans can accept.” – Suzanne Stone